The Lynch family have said they are “devastated” and “in shock” but are being “comforted and supported by family and friends” after the Bayesian superyacht tragedy.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, was confirmed dead by local authorities on Thursday after the Bayesian superyacht he was holidaying on sunk in the early hours of Monday.
A spokesperson for the family said in a statement on Friday: “The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends.
“Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy. They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue. Their one request now is that their privacy be respected at this time of unspeakable grief.”
Tributes have since poured in for both members of the family.
‘Lost one of our brightest stars’
Miss Lynch “lit up the classroom with her energy, passion for learning and sheer intelligence”, Jon Mitropoulos-Monk, head of English at Latymer Upper School in west London, said.
“I’ve never taught someone who combined sky-high intellectual ability with warmth and enthusiasm in the way Hannah did,” he said on Friday.
He said that when she was awarded her place to study at Oxford she sought out every member of staff to “thank them individually and give them a hug”.
Family friend Patrick Jacob said he has “never met anybody like Hannah”, describing her as “charming and ferociously intelligent with an insatiable thirst for life and knowledge”.
“We have lost one of our brightest stars whose future held so much promise. Her loss is unbearable.
Andrew Kanter, a close friend and former colleague of her father, described Mr Lynch as “the most brilliant mind and caring person I have ever known”.
“There is simply no other UK technology entrepreneur of our generation who has had such an impact on so many people,” he said.
Image: Hannah Lynch
Sushovan Hussain, a school friend and former colleague of Mr Lynch, also knew Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloom, his wife Judy, and Mr Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo, who also died when the yacht sunk.
He said his death “leaves an unfillable hole in my life”, adding it is “tragic beyond words.
His wife Angela Bacares was rescued from the yacht and has another daughter Esme who was not on board.
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Mike Lynch’s neighbour: ‘Words fail me’
‘Fantastic neighbour’
Ruth Leigh lived next door to the couple in Suffolk for 15 years.
On Thursday, she described them as “fantastic neighbours” and said the tech tycoon “never played on his position” and was “very friendly and down-to-earth” despite his fortune.
“Even though they were wealthy and influential people there was never any airs and graces,” Ms Leigh told Sky News.
“He always went to the trouble of remembering your name, of asking after your partner or your children. From the very start they were fantastic neighbours – very friendly and down-to-earth.
“He’d come from a very ordinary background and through his own brains and intellect, he’d made a really great company and come up with some incredible ground-breaking tech. He was always very moral. He gave to charity very generously and never played on his position.”
She described his death so soon after the end of his legal troubles as “the saddest thing I’ve ever heard”.
“The whole point about this trip to Italy was taking his friends and family to say thank you. That’s what makes it even more tragic,” she added.
“Losing somebody so kind, compassionate, and full of integrity must leave a hole that cannot be filled.”
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Mr Lynch was extradited to the US and spent a year under house arrest in San Francisco before he was cleared of 15 charges of fraud earlier this summer by a jury.
Prosecutors claimed he deliberately overstated the value of Autonomy, the company he founded in 1996, when he sold it to Hewlett Packard in 2011. He always denied wrongdoing.
His former colleague has told Sky News he had a “brain the size of a planet” and was a “lovely man”.
‘Brain the size of a planet’
David Tabizel co-founded Autonomy with Mr Lynch and the pair remained good friends. He described him as a “remarkable individual” and the “brightest man I’ve met in my life”.
“He was a lovely man,” he told Sky News. “He had a remarkable set of personality traits that we rarely see in Britain.
“Before him there was no British tech scene. He showed us we can be world-class.”
Mr Tabizel told of Mr Lynch’s “inner child”, that he “loved video games”, had a life-size train set in his garden, and how they animated a cartoon dog for their office, for which they both recorded the “barking noises”.
Commenting on his legal struggles, Mr Tabizel said he “never heard him lie or exaggerate” and he was “interested in the truth… in cutting through the noise”.
“For him to be accused of manipulating his profits. It was an extraordinary thing. It just wasn’t Mike.
“I loved that man and he should be celebrated as a hero.”
David Yelland, Mr Lynch’s former PR adviser and former editor of The Sun newspaper, has paid tribute to him in a post on X.
He said: “All those that knew and loved Mike are thinking of Angela and their surviving daughter Esme as they struggle to come to terms with such unimaginable loss.
“We have lost a man who was failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most – as he looked for help in the unjust US demand that he be extradited – and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”
Mr Yelland said he had spoken to Mr Lynch just before he set sail on the yacht.
He also described him as a “dreamer of dreams not just for himself but for all those that knew him, worked with him or invested with him”.
The entrepreneur had “exciting plans to contribute much more to the country he loved,” he added.
Image: Bayesian superyacht. Pic: Danny Wheelz
Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP and now chairman of BeyondNetZero, said Mr Lynch was “the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK”.
“His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. We have lost a human being of great ability,” he wrote.
Image: Pictured in 2010. Pic: Shutterstock
‘Privileged to have known him’
Sky’s Ian King said he “feels very privileged to have known and spoken with Mike Lynch over many years”.
He described him as a “visionary and original thinker with a passion for building businesses”. “There are sadly too few like him in the UK,” he added.
The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Mr Lynch was a former council member, donor, and mentor, said it is “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch”.
Sending condolences to his family, they added: “Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor, and former council member. He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.”
A spokesperson for technology industry group TechUK said: “Mike Lynch was a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector.
“Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends who have been impacted by these tragic events,” they said.
Image: Jonathan Bloomer of Morgan Stanley. Pic: Hiscox/ Linkedin
Image: US lawyer Chris Morvillo. Pic: Clifford Chance
Mr Lynch’s Autonomy software was based on Bayesian statistical inference – where his family’s ill-fated yacht got its name.
The software’s global success earned him a reputation as the “British Bill Gates” and enabled companies to trawl through huge swathes of data more efficiently.
His Cambridge thesis is thought to be one of the most-read pieces of research in the institution’s library.
There was huge outcry from politicians and business leaders when Home Secretary Priti Patel approved a judge’s extradition order for him to be sent to the US for trial in 2023.
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